Canfield couple say contractor also bilked them

Provided by Kyle and Katie Marlin

CANFIELD -- Another local contractor is making a name for himself through allegations of dishonesty and shoddy workmanship.

Kyle and Katie Marlin of Canfield said they also have been "duped" by Ed Yurkovich, who runs Xtreme Painting and Remodeling.

"We've been living in a construction zone for two years. Every single room is a construction zone," Katie Marlin said.

The couple have paid him more than $25,000 on a $24,000 interior home improvement job that still isn't complete, and the work that has been done, they say, is well below the promised and expected standard.

In late September, Noel Smith reported Yurkovich took $15,000 toward a $20,000 job on her Applewood Acres home and never completed the work, then stopped responding to her.

That was in the same week that Boardman contractor John Bartos III was arrested again for new and old charges of similar behaviors, which have already seen him convicted in Mahoning, Trumbull and Columbiana counties, and charges in western Pennsylvania.

The Marlins said they hadn't heard from Yurkovich for several months until that article ran, and he called them in a panic to say he'd finish the work for free. They said they do not want him back in their home.

The Marlins both are physically disabled. Kyle suffers from chronic dizziness so severe that he cannot drive most days. Katie has a serious case of remitting and relapsing multiple sclerosis and cannot work.

Two years ago, after consulting with four or five other contractors, the Marlins settled on Yurkovich. They wanted him to replace all the doors in the house, upgrade all the door and window trim, paint, and finish off the drywall work from a kitchen upgrade they began five years earlier.

"He told us everything we wanted to hear, we gave him a down payment, and he started work," Kyle said.

While much of the work was completed, many of the doors still aren't aligned. Then came the painting phase.

"One of the promises he made was that he would make all the drywall perfect before painting. So I was looking for that," Kyle said.

Katie said the contract included a specification that he would double sand everything. The Marlins said that in most places, he never sanded once.

"We found tons and tons of spots where he'd cut corners. He'd apply drywall mud and not sand it before painting it. Some places he'd clearly miss. We found many places where he missed painting, areas you wouldn’t look, like under the window sill."

Kyle said brush and roller marks on the ceilings are obvious. He said only half the living room is painted and the rest of the first floor has not been touched.

He also used a sprayer in the house, and failed to cover surfaces that shouldn't have paint on them.

"We just had all brand new luxury vinyl plank flooring put in, and there's spray paint all over the floors that I can't clean off," Kyle said.

In Kyle's office, Yurkovich's failure to sand the drywall and his hasty painting led to bubbles in the paint, which he repeatedly sanded and painted over. One part of that room amassed nine layers of paint in that fashion.

The Marlins said he also only worked from about 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. on the days he showed up.

Kyle said Yurkovich has been at their house far fewer days than not, even during the period where he was actively working on the job.

"On his very short days he'd try to fix mistakes, paint over wet drywall mud," he said. "We went through multiple periods where he just wouldn't show up."

Kyle said Yurkovich often claimed to be injured or disabled.

"All the time he was feigning injury with me, he was working (Noel's) job or other jobs," Kyle said. "That's something we treat with empathy, because you can't always see people's disabilities. So I gave him the benefit of the doubt even though I knew the whole time he was lying."

"The thing that bothered me the most is that he knows I have MS and he would come in every day he was here and he would ask me how I was doing, and then he would still disappear for seasons at a time and leave this house unfinished," Katie said.

Noel Smith said she discovered that Yurkovich was pulling the same trick with her, claiming injury and then going to work on someone else's job. Smith and the Marlins said one of Yurkovich's helpers often kept them informed about what his excuse was each day for not coming to the job.

And just like in Smith’s case, eventually Yurkovich just stopped responding to the Marlins.

The worker also told them other things. The Marlins learned that Yurkovich was spending the money they paid him for work and materials and then had to go do other jobs to make money to buy the materials needed to continue work on their home.

The Marlins say that while their kitchen is "ugly but functional" they still have Yurkovich's tools and materials in every room. Kyle keeps trying to move it all into the garage, but is running out of space there too.

He also "bent the hell out of the metal" - his words - in their laundry chute, so now their clothes keep getting stuck and coming out with holes in them.

They say they don't have the money to get the job finished because they paid everything they could afford for the job to Yurkovich.

Kyle said the couple has filed a complaint with the Ohio Attorney General's Office and, when he's able, will get to the Canfield Police Department to file a complaint there as well.

"We got duped, very duped," Katie said. "This is an area where people work very hard for their money, and think before they act, and unfortunately other people are just dishonest. I hope people see Ed's name and say they remember seeing him on the news and it gives them pause."

A 2023 Poland Township police report states that an 81-year-old resident told police she hired Yurkovich for work at her Woodland Road home, with an agreement requiring her to purchase supplies and pay some labor costs. She said she paid $15,554, but over time saw less and less work being performed until the project effectively stopped.

After nearly a year, she said she contacted Yurkovich asking for either a refund or the materials she had purchased. She said he promised to return the supplies but never did and then stopped returning her calls. She told police she wanted to pursue theft charges.

Ultimately, the Mahoning County Prosecutor's Office said she would have to pursue it as a civil matter.

A 2021 civil suit from a woman in Boardman sheds more light on Yurkovich's pattern of behavior.

In that case, a Mahoning County magistrate ordered Yurkovich to pay back at least $3,500 that the plaintiffs gave him as an advance on work he never finished.

The case notes show that the homeowners contracted him to renovate a guest house, giving Yurkovich an $8,000 down payment toward a $16,250 contract. They then advanced him the $3,500, “after which no work was completed.”

Smith also has filed complaints with Boardman police and the Ohio Attorney General's office.